Speaker 1: You're listening to Amma Mia podcast.
Speaker 2: Mama Maya acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
Speaker 2: that this podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 3: I am pregnanty.
Speaker 4: Welcome to Hello Bump.
Speaker 2: We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and more manageable. I'm Grace Rubray,
Speaker 2: pregnant for the first time, and I've just been fingered
Speaker 2: by a pelvic four physio rise right.
Speaker 3: Oh, so I'm Theannahman. I'm a mother of six and
Speaker 3: an obsentrician train in training, so I do a lot
Speaker 3: of that lane, but in a very positive way, hoping
Speaker 3: to birth your babies.
Speaker 2: Each episode will be holding your hand, and the hands, well,
Speaker 2: your honest hands will make you somewhere else week by
Speaker 2: week through this mysterious, perplexing and sometimes daunting miracle.
Speaker 4: That is pregnancy.
Speaker 1: Absolutely so welcome to week twenty one.
Speaker 4: What size are we?
Speaker 1: Rock melon?
Speaker 4: Still abroad?
Speaker 1: But that feels a small rock melon to me? It
Speaker 1: actually seems a little big.
Speaker 3: To be honest, knowing what I know about pregnancy, it
Speaker 3: does seem a little on that a larger size, maybe
Speaker 3: a small rabbit in terms of and I don't like.
Speaker 4: That any better. Just think that's is that our first animal?
Speaker 4: No our second animal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had we had a kidy peek before.
Speaker 2: What about like a bottle of serracha? Lengthwise, what is
Speaker 2: a bottle of sacha? It's a type of spice that
Speaker 2: we probably can't have if you've got heartburn, but it's
Speaker 2: like a spicy source.
Speaker 3: So we now mes a baby's size from its head
Speaker 3: to its feet. Remember how we talked about for a
Speaker 3: while they were measuring to its butt. Now it's a
Speaker 3: full length. So we've jumped significantly to twenty six centimeters
Speaker 3: three hundred and sixty grand. So yeah, we've got a
Speaker 3: We've got almost the length of a ruler in there,
Speaker 3: just curled up. It's all little legs are curled up,
Speaker 3: and yeah, so it's it's flex it's next flexed, and
Speaker 3: its head and its knees are all curled up in sides.
Speaker 3: It doesn't feel like that, hence the size of a rabbit.
Speaker 3: But if it went, if you were to get it
Speaker 3: out and pull his little arm's eye this and stretch,
Speaker 3: it'll stretch her out. She would be around the twenty
Speaker 3: six centimeters long.
Speaker 4: Do they ever want whilst in utero stretch.
Speaker 3: There's no room to do so because the uterus isn't huge.
Speaker 3: It grows with your baby, so it's not like you're
Speaker 3: us is like your baby's tiny. It's got this massive
Speaker 3: cavity to be in. Yeah, so it still it will
Speaker 3: be stretching out and in and out.
Speaker 2: Now, because I've seen those reels where someone goes, oh,
Speaker 2: this is how long it is, and they put like
Speaker 2: the average length of the baby, they put the tape
Speaker 2: measure up to them.
Speaker 4: I saw that today they and they just are like,
Speaker 4: how yeah, they're curled the lovely and what are they growing?
Speaker 1: Well, this week's about their bits and pieces.
Speaker 3: So the little woman, if she's in you, which is
Speaker 3: obviously in your case, has now got a fully formed uterress.
Speaker 3: So we talked about how it's all started around five weeks.
Speaker 3: It's a long long time ago that she was differentiated
Speaker 3: into a boy or girl based on genetics, and you
Speaker 3: know XX and x y and lots of different molecular
Speaker 3: signals and pathways that change things. But if it's a
Speaker 3: little girl, she's now got her useress. And if it's
Speaker 3: a boy based on the Y chromosome, it still takes
Speaker 3: a little longer for those testes to descend down outside.
Speaker 3: That's actually untill about twenty six, twenty eight weeks, quite
Speaker 3: a while before your baby's gonads are on the outside
Speaker 3: of his body, but it's still all forming on that
Speaker 3: inside obviously to allow him to produce in thirty five years.
Speaker 4: What's happening to me and what's happening to me?
Speaker 3: You might be experiencing heartburn and intergestion even more now,
Speaker 3: so we've already discussed the myth around.
Speaker 4: I have a gavaskin in my mouth. I can see that.
Speaker 3: I was wondering for having chewing It was a gavascon. Wow,
Speaker 3: it's sexy. What about the bloating and the appetite? Has
Speaker 3: that changed for you as well? Because there's certainly, quite
Speaker 3: commonly is changes in that space this week.
Speaker 2: It's hard to know what's bloating and what's babing at
Speaker 2: this point.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: True, I definitely feel bigger.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The reflux tends a bit worseer now in the bloating
Speaker 3: because there is more baby taking up that space too,
Speaker 3: so you can imagine it's pushing all your other bits
Speaker 3: and pieces aside.
Speaker 4: And is gas burping as well.
Speaker 3: Again, that's the Sophogel's finkter releasing and relaxing a little
Speaker 3: bit because of the progesterone. And also if you think
Speaker 3: about it, particularly when you're sitting down, when you stand up,
Speaker 3: you might find it relieves a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I don't know about you, but when.
Speaker 3: The baby, that size of that uterress is now squashing
Speaker 3: the stomach, so it's actually putting pressure and so you're
Speaker 3: just getting that acid but it comes back up not
Speaker 3: much shut normal? Is it normal?
Speaker 1: My?
Speaker 4: Is this normal? Is it's starting to think about delivery?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Because I did go to a pelvic four physio for
Speaker 2: the first time and when she you know, they have
Speaker 2: their hands inside you, and she said, let's start teaching
Speaker 2: you how to push, and with her hands inside me
Speaker 2: to see how what I was able to measure wise
Speaker 2: what I was, I guess open more and she said
Speaker 2: push with what you think pushing would be and my
Speaker 2: brain just went, I don't get it, and I just
Speaker 2: didn't understand. And I always thought there would be this
Speaker 2: instinctual thing. So maybe if that helps people, if it
Speaker 2: feels overwhelming, it wasn't instinct No, it's.
Speaker 3: More instinctual in the birth room now, and that is
Speaker 3: also again not for everyone. So we definitely have women
Speaker 3: where a body just takes over and she just her
Speaker 3: body just pushes the baby out. So you know, you
Speaker 3: hear people saying, your baby bree is breathed out, like
Speaker 3: she just literally went into this amazing zone of you know, berthing,
Speaker 3: and then the baby.
Speaker 1: She just breathed and this baby just delivered.
Speaker 3: It does happen, not commonly on your first grace, but
Speaker 3: it does happen. And you know, people have babies in
Speaker 3: car parks and at home because it was so unexpected
Speaker 3: and quick.
Speaker 1: So some people do.
Speaker 3: But the vast majority of women that I've now been
Speaker 3: privileged to watch, which is more than a thousand women
Speaker 3: I've probably watched vaginally birth, take time to learn how
Speaker 3: to push because for our whole lives we have been
Speaker 3: told suck in, hold up, and don't let that go.
Speaker 3: You know, keegels, kegels, kegels pull it. The language, by
Speaker 3: the way, I think are in c central, including in pregnancy.
Speaker 3: But it's having to let all of that go, like
Speaker 3: you'll be pushing a watermelon out and you need to
Speaker 3: be okay with opening your boughs because most people do
Speaker 3: because that's the way the baby's coming out, not up
Speaker 3: and in.
Speaker 4: It's interesting that you say up and in.
Speaker 2: That was the only way I was able to lock
Speaker 2: into how to push out was to first go up
Speaker 2: and in and then push out. Okay, that's interesting, yeah,
Speaker 2: because I couldn't. I think I was also trying to
Speaker 2: push with stomach muscles. Yep, yeah, fair, until it clocked
Speaker 2: what we were doing. And then we've sort of went
Speaker 2: in stages of how to engage the muscles. And then
Speaker 2: she would show me on an ultrasound when I.
Speaker 4: Was engaging the muscles.
Speaker 2: Okay, to visually see it, and when is the right
Speaker 2: time to start seeing a pelvic floor physio and is
Speaker 2: it something that is recommended by obstetricians and midwives to
Speaker 2: do well?
Speaker 1: Look, it's certainly.
Speaker 3: We have an amazing women's health physiotherapy team at our hospital.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure that's the case everywhere, because one of
Speaker 3: my older hospitals wasn't the case. So I'm a massive
Speaker 3: believer in it. I had incontinence even as an athlete
Speaker 3: before pregnancy, and certainly had it afterwards and very much
Speaker 3: during pregnancy. So one of the reasons I went and
Speaker 3: saw women's health visio before it was even advertisers the thing,
Speaker 3: as you know, a thing to do, was because I
Speaker 3: could not stand sneezing and pissing myself at work every time.
Speaker 3: Found that really uncomfortable. So I went there to try
Speaker 3: and work out why, and learn about your anatomy, learn
Speaker 3: about your body, get comfortable with your own vagina because
Speaker 3: later in pregnancy we'll start talking about things like paranoral
Speaker 3: massage and stuff to try and help with paranoral trauma
Speaker 3: and tearing during labor, which, by the way, ladies, sorry
Speaker 3: because we're all going to close your legs right now,
Speaker 3: is at common, okay, So, particularly in first pregnancy is
Speaker 3: very few people get away with it intact parente, which
Speaker 3: means no tearing or grazing. This is the time to
Speaker 3: make a good relationship with your physiotherapist, because I also
Speaker 3: believe no matter what birth you have, it's fantastic to
Speaker 3: engage with the physio before and after pregnancy. They help
Speaker 3: you retrain your pelvic floor, they help you retrain your
Speaker 3: abdominal muscles, because let's be honest, they're going to separate significantly.
Speaker 3: You know, we get a lot of people with diast
Speaker 3: disrectors afterwards, which is a big gap in the upper
Speaker 3: start to switch depends on your pregnancy, It depends on
Speaker 3: your pre existing BMI. It depends how many babies are inside.
Speaker 3: For me, my first pregnance around the twenty eight week mark,
Speaker 3: so around where you are now. I noticed in the
Speaker 3: night work up and it went away and I looked
Speaker 3: very much more pregnant the next day. So but you know,
Speaker 3: I was Onlympic athlete and did a lot of dominant work,
Speaker 3: so I think I was probably holding it back and
Speaker 3: that was so tight and strong, which I think is
Speaker 3: another thing we should probably bring up, and the your
Speaker 3: physio can guide you on this more than probably an
Speaker 3: obstetric can. Is that for some women you need to
Speaker 3: back off your pelvic floor work. So I was someone
Speaker 3: who had a really tight pelvic floor from significant amounts
Speaker 3: of exercise, and that's not ideal for labor.
Speaker 1: Everything you need.
Speaker 3: You needed to be strong to support the pregnancy, but
Speaker 3: then you need to be able to turn it off
Speaker 3: and allow your body to open for birth.
Speaker 4: That's fascinating.
Speaker 3: So now I'd say twenty weeks is around the time
Speaker 3: twenty one twenty two weeks where you should be looking
Speaker 3: at women's health visios and you know, narrowing down one
Speaker 3: or two that you'd like to see and because it
Speaker 3: can also even support you with back pain. And they're
Speaker 3: not just vagina physios, you know, they do lots of
Speaker 3: other therapy as well. Can help you with your incontinence,
Speaker 3: can help you with prolapse concerns, talk about birth, can
Speaker 3: help you guide you on pushing. I'm not sure I've
Speaker 3: heard of a physio doing the birth pushing at twenty
Speaker 3: one twenty two weeks, but maybe that's something she's really
Speaker 3: passionate about. It's certainly a conversation you need to be
Speaker 3: happy and as you're getting closer to sort of thirty
Speaker 3: five and thirty.
Speaker 2: Six weeks, yeah, just because of the I don't know
Speaker 2: if this is going to be my talk, kid, but
Speaker 2: as it was so nice to figure out what the
Speaker 2: muscles are.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, even though it was very daunting.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm sure you're not alone, so hopefully it'll inspire
Speaker 3: someone else to get out and make a phone call.
Speaker 4: And book you.
Speaker 2: Apart from this, what are some other things we can
Speaker 2: start to think about this week?
Speaker 3: Well, I think it really is starting to consider birth.
Speaker 3: Like you know, I'm really hoping with every bone in
Speaker 3: my body that it's not for at least another fifteen weeks.
Speaker 3: But yeah, starting to approach that space where you know
Speaker 3: things do change and happen. So I think it's really
Speaker 3: important to start one a little book where your monitor
Speaker 3: babies movements. So now is the time to really think,
Speaker 3: oh yes, I'm feeling it, Oh yes, I'm feeling it regularly.
Speaker 3: So that we're going to start harping on about that
Speaker 3: pretty often in the next couple of episodes, because movement
Speaker 3: start become very important, but also just planning things that
Speaker 3: you're going to require and need over the next few months.
Speaker 2: My talk kit this week is the pelvic floor exercises,
Speaker 2: but one that really surprised me was about opening your
Speaker 2: hip muscles and doing Child's posts, because one of the
Speaker 2: things that they do is they sort of massage around
Speaker 2: to see how tight you are in your hips from
Speaker 2: the inside. And it's the strangest sense, but I was
Speaker 2: quite tight in my hips, which you just have to
Speaker 2: start learning how to lose them and let go. And
Speaker 2: that the physiotomy that it's common for a lot of
Speaker 2: women that we never fully relax.
Speaker 4: You could always be.
Speaker 2: Ten percent tensed, and if you're one of those people
Speaker 2: that's ten percent tens you've got to learn how to
Speaker 2: let that go.
Speaker 3: Absolutely and I think we need to highlight that at
Speaker 3: this point it's worse for people with chronic pelvic pain
Speaker 3: and end to eat triosis and stuff like that. So
Speaker 3: if you have a pre existing pelvic floor condition, it's
Speaker 3: central to start looking at this early. The flip side
Speaker 3: of that, not everyone's going to be able to ford
Speaker 3: together to a physio, that's true, so they are sometimes pricey, deservedly.
Speaker 3: So yeah, and so there are really good website like
Speaker 3: Medibank actually has a page propurely on kegal exercises, So
Speaker 3: if you want to start looking at what those muscles
Speaker 3: are and training it, they just basically run you through
Speaker 3: what to do, which is, you know, like holding your
Speaker 3: wig and holding in that symptom for three to five
Speaker 3: seconds and then letting go, and sort of training on
Speaker 3: how often and frequently you know you should be doing.
Speaker 4: Things like that.
Speaker 3: So there are good resources out there if you can't
Speaker 3: afford to guns Efidio.
Speaker 2: Hope you enjoyed this episode of Hello Bump. We have
Speaker 2: so many episodes of this series filled with tips and
Speaker 2: stories from women and experts who've been through it all before.
Speaker 3: You can go back and listen to everything else Hello
Speaker 3: Bump related in this podcast.
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Speaker 3: This episode was produced by Courtney Ammenhauser with audio production
Speaker 3: by Tom Lyon.
Speaker 1: We'll catch you next time. Bye.
Speaker 4: This episode of Hello Bump was made in partnership with
Speaker 4: Huggies